1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates, generally, to promotional material for retail products. More particularly, the invention relates to coupons applied to necked containers, such as milk bottles.
2. Background Information.
The state of the art includes various coupons and display cards for retail products. The coupons offer consumers a discount on a product featured on the coupon. A coupon can substantially boost sales of a featured product, and lead to subsequent purchases of that product by a consumer, or purchases of related products. Paper coupons are printed in product advertising such as newspapers, magazines, supplements, and mailings. Coupons can be included in a product, such as dry cereal, or they may by included in a product's packaging. Paper board packaging easily facilitates printing coupons on it, and packaging that uses plastic wrap allows a coupon to be placed under the wrap.
Packaging for liquids does not as easily provide for coupons, especially for beverages such as milk, juice and carbonated beverages that are packaged in plastic or glass bottles. These packages typically have a paper label adhesively affixed to the plastic or glass container. In the past, coupons have been printed on the label of such containers, but to use such a coupon, a consumer must remove the label from the container. Since the label is intended to stay affixed to the container, this is difficult to do without mutilating the coupon. Coupons have also been adhesively affixed to the label, which can allow easier removal of the coupon, but such a coupon can obscure at least a portion of the label. Labels on liquid containers typically do not have much extra room which can be covered by a coupon.
Several patents disclose coupon or display vehicles having an aperture with radial slits extending therefrom for fitting over the top of a necked container. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,356 to Lapp, the aperture is larger than the neck of the container so that the coupon vehicle rests on the container below the neck and is not necessarily secured to the neck. The slits are for the purpose of facilitating the deformation and collapsing of the hole as the coupon vehicle is passed over the cap for engagement with the neck of a capped beverage container. The coupons themselves are of rectangular configuration and folded among themselves or contained in separate envelopes attached to the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,435 to Grody, U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,156 to Maroszek et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,650 to Follett also disclose devices with the similar apertures and radial slits for the same purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,984 to Hartman et al. discloses an aperture with slits that allow a tab or flap to be punched out of the device when it is inserted over a bottle neck, but the flaps are folded significantly up against the neck of the bottle and may not necessarily hold the device securely on the neck, of the bottle.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,861 to Forsythe discloses a card with an aperture for the neck which is smaller than the neck of the container, and which has a single locking flap to exert a ratchet-like grip against the neck below the cap so as to resist upward movement of the card on the container neck.
The Lapp, Hartman, and Forsythe patents also disclose at least one line of perforations which allows portions of the coupon vehicle to be separated from one another but those lines of perforations do not pass through the central aperture. When the usable coupons are separated from the coupon vehicle, a portion of the vehicle remains attached to the container. As these containers are recycled, this remaining portion of the coupon vehicle must be separately removed and disposed of.
None of the patents above disclose a disk-shaped coupon vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 1,353,531 to Heard discloses a disk-shaped marking card for milk bottles. The card has a central aperture with tongues which bear yieldingly on the neck and can abut against the bead to prevent accidental removal of the card from the neck, but it does not fit snugly against the top of the bottle. The card is not intended to be separated into portions and does not have any lines of perforations.
Applicant's invention provides a coupon vehicle for necked containers which overcomes the limitations and shortcomings of the prior art.